November 25, 2006

This was sent recently from James Paul Colligan, a Catholic priest, journalist, and sometime photographer…

I often wander with a camera when I can find time. New York City always provides photo ops. On October 7 [2006], I meandered south from the neighborhood of Grand Central. I happened to have a 50-200mm lens on my Nikon D70 camera when I spotted across the street the two guys with the "Inside Job" sign (a few blocks south of Union Square.)

PHOTO BY JAMES PAUL COLLIGAN

Rather than get closer to the two guys using another lens, I was content that the long lens allowed me to include foot and vehicle traffic. The guys were not in hiding. A convenient railing at a subway entrance served to steady the camera, though this might have looked to them like I was hiding.

Digital photography allows for many shots at no expense. I took maybe ten or twelve shots over as many minutes, waiting for a yellow cab or an orange jacket to enter the frame and offset the blue sign.

They noticed me. A tall man, one of the two, motioned for a third man nearby to take his place at the sign. He crossed the street toward me. I stayed, conscious of possible trouble while judging it unlikely. He said, "We are wondering who you are taking the photos for."

"No one," I replied. "Only for my own interest."

"We thought maybe we were under surveillance. What do you think? Are you with us or against us?”

"I have no idea what kind of evidence you have," I answered. (i.e., for claiming an "inside job"). My thought from the beginning was, ANOTHER CONSPIRACY THEORY, OR A SICK JOKE.

He was pleasant and my words seemed to satisfy him. "Here's our website address," he said, handing me a slip of paper. He went back to resume his place at the sign.

I write at length in Watching the World Change about the perils of giving too much lip service, air time, and Internet space to 9/11 conspiracy theorists. (To read my November 13 entry on the subject, CLICK HERE.)

In a follow-up e-mail, I asked Jim Colligan to tell me a bit about his life. His response…

I am a practicing Catholic priest (Maryknoll Missioner), journalist and pro[fessional] photographer. (Helluva way to make a living.) I help out regularly at the Japanese parish in Little Tokyo and occasionally am asked to sub for a priest at the nearby cathedral. After ten years in language study and parish assignments in Japan, I was asked by my superior there in 1966 if I would consider journalism as a career path (I had been doing words and pictures on my free time for Maryknoll publications in the U.S.) I said yes but I [had] no journalism training. So I went to Syracuse U's Newhouse School for three semesters and a journalism Master's.

I hurried back to Japan.... Before flying off, I stopped at the editorial offices of what would become Catholic News Service, in D.C…. and asked the director if he would provide me a letter of accreditation in exchange for any stories that might interest him on Japan. He said okay. I returned to Japan on a press visa. That continued through 30 years and five or six directors.

Over the years I helped the Japanese bishops with their communications, did a regular column for a Japan Protestant quarterly, submitted cartoons and other stuff to the press club (FCCJ) monthly, freelanced for a German photo agency of Catholic origins, translated most of a book for a Jesuit at Sophia U, spent three weeks in Bangladesh to do a 64-page survey of the Church there for a Maryknoll office, traipsed around much of Asia helping set up what is now Union of Catholic Asia News (UCAN), taking pictures, etc.

I was most happy to be elected by correspondents as chairman for three separate years of the Foreign Press in Japan (FPIJ), which had me meeting with Japanese officials and media people over coverage of news events, and supervising pool assignments. (I escaped the latter with my scalp.) FCCJ was a home away from home.

In 1997 I was recalled to the States (a story in itself). Choosing to live in L.A. where, among other priorities, I might find occasion to use my Japanese language, I am here today. Based in a rented apartment. Until September when a Japanese priest came from Tokyo to be administrator of the Little Tokyo parish, I was conducting services on Sunday in Japanese. Presently I am scheduled for noon mass each Wednesday and Friday, in English.